pic: We got bored :)

[daltore]

Any pictures of the innards? Sweet design, I'd love to see that on an FTC robot (if they would allow it along with all the other parts needed).

[Dillon Carey]

If there aren't limitations on the wheels there shouldn't be any reason not to put this on an frc bot.

[GarrettF2395]

Wow!
I'm always really impressed by your teams quality of components!

Two questions for you:
1) From the beginning of the design process, to having a finished product,
how long did it take your team to complete this project? (Just wondering)

2) Do you have an idea of how much load this little guy can take?

[Dillon Carey]

Originally Posted by GarrettF2395

1) From the beginning of the design process, to having a finished product,
how long did it take your team to complete this project? (Just wondering)

Its the off-season so we have been taking it nice and easy, we have probably been working on it for over a month, if you take out design and it probably took 3 days.

In a build season environment we could probably have 4-6 of these done in 3-4 days (give or take a few depending on when the waterjet is open and when we can get the hex put in the bevel gears and axles made).

Originally Posted by GarrettF2395

2) Do you have an idea of how much load this little guy can take?

The wheels would be the weakest point, in my opinion, since everything else is .25" plate and .5" hex.

http://banebots.com/pc/WHB-WS-174/T40P-174BO-HS4 is where we got the wheels, but i can't find a number for how much they can hold, although I'm pretty sure that having 3 wheels per module and having 3-4 modules on a robot that the wheels would be fine.

[Jared Russell]

The only caveat of such small wheels is ground clearance. If next year's game requires climbing a ramp or other obstacle, big wheels become valuable.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Jared341

The only caveat of such small wheels is ground clearance. If next year's game requires climbing a ramp or other obstacle, big wheels become valuable.

Simswerve... always a good thing to bring up, just because there is an obvious solution does NOT mean it is the only solution. With modules this small and light you can really do some cool stuff.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Simswerve... always a good thing to bring up, just because there is an obvious solution does NOT mean it is the only solution. With modules this small and light you can really do some cool stuff.

On a similar note, for a game like 04; Why even tackle some problems? Hanging from the floor in 2004 was a negligible (1'?) difference in height compared to hanging from the platform. Always double check that a problem is really a problem.

[Greg Needel]

I love this. The FIRST community never ceases to amaze me with their ideas which I probably would never have thought of, this idea is one of them. I can totally picture this on an FRC robot, tucked away inside a 3x3 or 4x4 frame rail. It could be an almost "hidden" drive train as it would take up a very small amount of real estate.

As for the wheels, I have heard mixed reviews about the banebot wheels. Just like any traction devices harder wheels don't provide enough traction and the soft wheels wear too quickly. A unique opportunity you have with a 3 wheel design is a mixture of wheel durometer, while I am not sure you may be able to "tune" your traction using different combinations, the one that strikes me as obvious is high traction on the inside and harder wheels on the outside.

A couple of questions:

Any reason you didn't use gears or even #25 on the outside, I would suspect you could play with the geometry a bit and make gears work making assembly even easier.

Do you think you really need ball bearings in the modules? I think you could get away with oilite bronze bushings to keep the space and weight lower.

Did you think about drilling out the hex shafts to reduce weight? you could probably sink a 1/4 hole through your shafts and loose even more weight.

Overall I really like the idea, and don't be surprised if I borrow some of these ideas for a future robot.

[Aren_Hill]

that is #25 chain.....also those bolts are #6's for size reference

and the bearings are the 1/2" hex bore andymark ones enabling us to use the banebots wheels without custom hubs and not having to make spiffy shafts just buying some 1/2" hex stock and adding snapring grooves

we also have always used bearings in all spots on the drive out of just a nagging feeling bushings hurt efficiency we like the bots flying (not quite 254 but close).

Yeah i suppose we could bore out the shafts it would be quite easy, we'd thought of that and it would probably happen on the final version of a real bot. Also the Hex shaft is 2024 alum.

And we went for the orange wheels for the fact our team colors are orange and black and this one is for proof of concept and show, final we'll play around more

another awesome part about this is you can add 1 reduction between a cim and the input shaft and have a reasonable speed, no weight wasted on extra reduction to get to say a 6" or 8" wheel

Piloted and designed by Dillon i was just a consultant

[NorviewsVeteran]

Any chance of another beauty shot, next to a quarter or ruler or something?

[Akash Rastogi]

I go to visit MIT for one weekend and this is what you do, Aren?

Great stuff.

[R.C.]

This is like the coolest thing I've seen all summer. It reminds me of a lego version of a big swerve, not that is not usable. But it fits like one aka the notches and I love it (PUZZLE SWERVE). I second Greg, I may use this idea in the future.

Hats off to you guys for the wicked design.

-RC

[Dillon Carey]

Originally Posted by NorviewsVeteran

Any chance of another beauty shot, next to a quarter or ruler or something?

[Greg Needel]

how come the wheels are not centered?

[Dillon Carey]

The wheels aren't centerd because in order to make the module shorter we had to offset the wheels from the bevel gear